204 



STORIES ABOUT BIRDS. 



% Kuws arc said to possess a great 

 deal of intelligence and shrewd- 

 ness. Dr. Darwin says that he 

 had a friend livinsr on the northern coast 

 of Ireland, who saw more than a hundred 

 crows in compan}^, feeding on muscles. 

 The plan they hit upon to break them was, 

 each to take one up in his bill to a considerable 

 height in the air, and then to let it fall upon 

 the stones. In this way the shells of the 

 muscles were broken, and they were able to 

 get at the flesh. 



There is a kind of crow which abounds in 

 England, called the hooded crow. It is said — 

 though I give 3"0u license to receive the facts 

 with a grain or two of doubt — that one or two 

 hundi'ed of these birds will meet together, as 

 if upon some fixed plan ; and at these times, a 



